I'm Not Ready
by weestarmeggie
Summary: It's the first of September and Hermione is in for more than one surprise as she returns to Hogwarts for her would be seventh year. Written for Strictly Dramione's return to Hogwarts fest.


"Why are we here again?" Ron asked petulantly as he leaned against one of the columns that made up King's Cross Station, arms folded across his chest and pout firmly in place. Harry glanced at his best friend and smirked. They weren't even getting on the Hogwarts Express yet Ron looked like someone had told him he would be getting on the train whether he liked it or not.

Harry tugged on the sleeves of his trainee auror robes and tried not to laugh aloud at his best friend even as a smirk twitched at his lips.

"Because," he began, nodding at a few passerbys who waved at him in greeting, and turning towards Ron so that his next few words weren't carried across the entire platform of 9 3/4. "Hermione is our best friend and we haven't seen her in a month what with all our long hours and training in the field. It will be a nice surprise for her if she turns up on her first day back at Hogwarts, as Head Girl no less, to find her two best friends supporting her."

"Ah ha," Ron agreed, flicking his eyes in Harry's direction and smirking. "And it has nothing to do with seeing someone else at all does it?"

Harry refused to meet his eye and began to fix the lapel of his robes instead. "Don't know what you're talking about," he sniffed.

Ron snorted and turned his gaze back on the crowd that was beginning to gather on the platform. A quick look at the watch Hermione had sent him for starting auror training told him that there was only twenty minutes until the train departed. His eyebrows furrowed.

"She's cutting it pretty close don't you think?"

"Maybe."

Ron looked up at his best mate in confusion, sure that he must be distracted to give him such a blase answer only to find his attention drawn to the blonde, who'd just appeared with a younger brunette on her arm, at the end of the platform, and smirked, his own mind momentarily forgetting about the missing Hermione. "Just go and speak to her."

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Harry," Ron turned and gripped his best friend by the shoulders so that he was facing him. "Just go and speak to her. It's not a big deal."

Harry shucked himself from Ron's grip and glared at him. "You know you're very keen for me to chase after a witch that isn't your sister."

Ron shrugged and leaned against the column once more. "No offense, but my little sister deserves the best and well," he flicked his eyes in Harry's direction and smirked, "you're a bit of a tosser."

"Fuck off," Harry snorted, elbowing him in the ribs. Ron gasped dramatically before the two burst into laughter. When they'd calmed down and everyone had stopped looking at them like they had lost their minds Harry fixed himself. "How do I look?"

"Like an idiot," Ron replied.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned in the direction he'd last spotted Daphne. "Wish me lu-" He broke off suddenly, a blank look crossing his face.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked, startled by his friends sudden change in demeanour. But Harry didn't say anything. He was suddenly storming off in the direction of the platform's floos and when Ron spotted exactly what had drawn his attention, he too was hot on his heels.

* * *

Astoria Greengrass did not want to return to Hogwarts. Even with her sister by her side and zero danger of a cruciatus curse being used against her for cheek or tardiness or _anything_ she didn't want to go.

She wanted to stay home with her mother and new baby brother and just out of the way. She didn't want to face it. Any of it. But she didn't want to make Daphne go alone either. Even if her sister said it would be fine, Astoria knew her well enough to know she was deflecting.

"Are you ready?" Daphne asked, snapping her sister from her reverie. Astoria stood, smoothing the skirt of her dress in the process.

"Yes."

"And you're ok?"

"I wish you would stop asking me that," Astoria muttered. "I'm fine."

"He'll be there."

"I would expect so considering he's now Head Boy."

"How do you know _that_?"

Astoria flicked her eyes in her sister's direction and shrugged. "He told me."

"You spoke to him"?

"I don't know where everyone got the impression that I was madly in love with Draco Malfoy, but let me tell you I have never have, nor will I ever be, in love with him."

"I know that 'Stori' but…." She trailed off and Astoria fixed her with a glare.

"We were never together. You know this right?"

"Of course. But you were engaged?"

Astoria snorted and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Our fathers negotiated a contract between us that would mutually benefit both of our families and completely disregarded our feelings on the matter Daph. I would hardly say we were engaged at all. More like sold off like chattel."

Daphne blinked. Once then twice before she drew her little sister into a hug and proceeded to squeeze the life out of her. "Merlin you are such a sap now. Potter's rubbing off on you."

Daphne stilled in her arms and Astoria smirked.

"Don't know what you're talking about," she muttered, striding free of her sister and towards the floo.

"Ah ha," Astoria hummed, "And I suppose that hickey, that wasn't on your neck when I said goodnight last night just appeared by itself did it?" She laughed.

When they stepped through the floo it was to find an incredibly crowded platform. Astoria hadn't realised how close they'd been cutting it, dawdling about in the house as they had most of the morning. "I'm going to try and find Ginny and Luna," Astoria said turning towards her sister. "I'll see you at the feast."

Daphne hummed and when Astoria peered over her shoulder to see Potter standing there she simply rolled her eyes. "You two ar-" She broke off.

"What?" Daphne asked.

Astoria shook her head, a grin twitching at her lips at the sight of the two people who'd just tumbled out of the floo behind them. And a laugh burst from Daphne when she caught sight of them too, right before she was jolting forward and gripping Potter, who'd been trying to storm past them, by the wrist and pulling him to her.

Astoria watched in mild amusement as her sister began to snog him senseless and the sight of Hermione Granger, with her legs wrapped around Draco Malfoy as the pair of them snogged, was forgotten.

* * *

"What are you doing here?"

Draco blinked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he took in the sight of his girlfriend and her _still_ unpacked trunk. "I'm picking you up."

"I thought we were meeting on the train."

"We were. But my mother reminded me that no matter how badly raised I was in some areas of my life, that manners had been one of the first things she instilled in me and she would not have me tarnish her reputation by forgoing them now. So," he drawled, sweeping a hand in Hermione's direction. "Here I am."

"I am quite capable of making it through the floo by myself you know," she said, flicking her wand and watching quietly as her remaining belongings swept themselves into her trunk.

Draco's eyebrows rose up his forehead at her tone. "I know-"

"I just. We said we were going to meet on the train." A frown began to twitch at his lips. "And now you're here and I'm not ready and everything is a mess and-"

"Your trunk is right there Granger. You have your wand and your Head Girl badge is pinned to the lapel of your dress. I don't know how much more ready you could be." At her silence he flicked his eyes back to hers and swallowed as realisation dawned on him.

"Oh."

"Draco."

He snorted. "No. It's fine. I get it. You're not _ready_."

"Draco."

"Of course you're not ready," he began, more to himself than to the girl standing in front of him, a defeated expression on her face. "Why would you be? How could you be? It's not exactly what you had planned is it?"

"Draco." He ignored her.

"I get it. Nobody dreams about the day they reveal their relationship with their childhood bully. My mistake."

"You're being unfair." He laughed at that, his mask - that he'd long stopped wearing around her - slipping back into place.

"Of course."

"I just wanted to tell Harry and Ron first. I don't want them to think I've been hiding anything from them." Draco fixed her with a glare he usually reserved for his idiotic best friend Theo. "What?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," he drawled. "I wasn't aware you _hadn't_ been lying to them for the past three years. Once again my mistake."

"Draco."

"I'll just leave then, yes?" It was rhetorical. "See you on the train and pretend to act surprised and sneer at you when I realise you have been appointed to Head Girl. I'm so good at acting after all. It shouldn't be a bother."

"You're being ridiculous."

He snorted. "Of course."

"Draco."

"You won't be wanting this then." He slipped his hand into his pocket and withdrew the box his mother had pressed into his palm not twenty minutes before and tossed it at her. She caught it deftly but Draco turned away quickly so he didn't have to look at her face. "I'll see you later," he muttered over his shoulder as he strode back towards the fireplace and dumped a handful of floo powder at his feet. He was in the midst of calling out his destination when he suddenly found Hermione in his arms, her legs wrapped tight around his waist, her lips attached to his and his grandmother's engagement ring on her left hand's ring finger as the floo whirled to life and swept them away.

* * *

She hadn't been thinking. And it certainly wasn't the first time that the infuriating blond git who was holding her in his arms had robbed her of her common sense either, but still - perhaps it hadn't been the smartest thing she'd ever done to ambush him as he'd called out his destination in her parent's fireplace. But the ring had been too much. It reminded her how much they'd fought for over the years - how much they meant to each other.

Merlin knew they'd been through the ringer over the years. Keeping their relationship a secret had almost killed them on more than one occasion and Hermione knew the thought of ' _is this worth it?_ ' had crossed his mind just as much as it had crossed hers.

But the war was over.

They'd fought, and almost lost their lives at the age of seventeen, so that _everyone_ in their world could be free.

Free to be who they wanted.

Free to be _with_ who they wanted.

So what did it matter what Harry and Ron thought?

She knew for a fact that Harry was seeing Daphne Greengrass so he wouldn't have an issue with Malfoy for being a Slytherin and Ron-

Well Ron had known she'd been seeing someone _forbidden_ for years after confronting her when he and Lavender had gotten together. He was her best friend and she knew that no matter what, he would support her.

She'd been an idiot and as she snogged her boyfriend (even as they traveled through the floo network) she murmured the words against his lips. He only gripped her thighs more firmly and held her tighter.

She was still wrapped around him when they tumbled from the floo onto the platform and were met with silence.

"Are you ready now?" Draco murmured, cupping her jaw in his hand and smoothing his thumb over her cheek. Hermione pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand, nodded and let her legs fall to the ground. She took his hand in hers and turned to face the platform.

"What?" She asked. "Never seen two teenagers snogging before?"

The platform burst back into life and Hermione swallowed when she caught sight of Harry and Ron waiting for her a few feet away.

"Harry. Ro-"

"Malfoy?" Harry asked, Glaring at her boy- _fiance._

Ron snorted and sighed to himself. "This makes so much sense."

Harry turned to glare at him instead. "You knew?"

"That she was seeing someone? Well yeah. It was obvious."

"I didn't notice," Harry muttered petulantly and Hermione slipped her hand from Draco's and approached her best friend.

"You had other things on your mind?" She offered tentatively. Harry sighed and let Daphne go to hug Hermione instead. She breathed a sigh of relief and squeezed him tightly. "I was so worried you wouldn't-"

"What? Accept Malfoy?" He snorted. Hermione blinked at him and he sighed dramatically, flicking his eyes over her shoulder to meet Malfoys gaze before he looked back at her. "His patronus-" Hermione's eyes widened in shock and she swallowed. She wasn't aware either of the boys had known about that. "I saw it a few times and well. I didn't know whose it was but now-"

"Now," Ron interrupted, "It makes perfect sense."

Harry sighed and let Hermione go. "Perfect sense." He met Draco's eye over Hermione's shoulder again. "Don't suppose I need to bother with the whole ' _you hurt her I'll kill you'_ speech do I?" Draco lifted an eyebrow and Harry snorted. "Thought not."

"That's it?" Hermione asked. "No drama? No fighting? No 'It's us or him?'" She asked.

Harry and Ron shared a look, but it was Ron who spoke. "I mean I'm sure we can muster an argument up if that's what you wa-"

"Nope. I'm fine. This is fine." She let loose a breath and chuckled. "Merlin. I was so worried."

Draco stepped up behind them and wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist. She instinctively leaned into him. "I know."

"Well," Daphne interrupted appearing beside Harry and slipping her own hand into his, "this has been lovely but we do have a train to catch."

"Oh shit," Hermione muttered, turning to look at Draco. "The first years! We have to organise the and," she glanced at her watch, "Gods!" She exclaimed. "There's only five minutes left till the train departs-"

She stalked off leaving all of them to stare after her as she made her way down the platform and began to break families up and ushered the students towards the carriages. Draco sighed dreamily at the sight.

"Oh, you're whipped?" Harry asked gleefully. Draco glared at him and pointedly looked at Harry's hand wrapped in Daphne's.

""Pot calling the kettle black much Potter?"

Harry shrugged. "Shouldn't you be helping her?" He asked, pointing to the Head Boy badge Draco had pinned to the lapel of his own shirt. Draco flicked his wand, summoning Hermione's trunk from her parent's front room so that it was waiting for them, along with his own, in the Head Student's compartment of the train.

Draco watched her, a fond smile tugging at his lips. "She doesn't need any help."


End file.
